European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - October 02, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Voices 40 years of fantasy by Michael Bracewell Manchester guardian s Martin Luther King or. Had a dream of racial Harmony and Joseph Smith had a dream of the mormon Church so Hugh Hefner the founder of Playboy mag Azine had a great american dream. But Hefner s dream was secular in Conception and spiritual in its dimensions he had spotted an unplugged orifice in the postwar periodicals Market and he knew How to fill it. With a nude Centrefold of Marilyn Monroe As his Mary Magdalene Hugh Hefner was founding a Church for the men of America. Playboy Magazine would use erotic Glamour photography As the Rock upon which to build. Standardized tall women with big breasts big behinds and velvet Rabbit ears would be the constantly Smil Ingi Honey tanned Angels of the new religion. With distribution to rival the Gideon Bible play boy Magazine would go out into the world to spread the word. And then the Church would proliferate j with Playboy clubs in major cities where relaxing men could feel at ease with themselves and soothe 1 the wounds no wife could soothe after bouts of corporate heroism. As dreams go he s surreal vision of rabbits and Fleshy hemispheres was a Winner. That was Back in 1954, when America was in the grip of cold War paranoia and a Black Man could get his head kicked in for standing in the wrong , philosophically was opposed to the moral hypocrisy of America arid saw sexual liberation As a Means of defending the constitutional right of civil Liberty. The right to buy a photograph of a naked woman was vital to Hefner vision of a free society. Quite where this leaves women other than _ dressed As rabbits providing they were tall enough pretty enough and sexy enough is hot quite Clear. But the logic of dreams is Al Days obscure and the world of Playboy was always a dream. The reduction of women to rabbits was a stroke of Genius on Hefner s part. In a War of civil liberties the Playboy bunnies themselves according to the logic of Playboy could be seen As militant feminists using their sexuality to change the world. That must be Why the bunnies were always smiling. With such a Clear vision it was inevitable that Hefner a Playboy Empire would succeed. Within a decade Playboy stood for modernity sophistication modern jazz and serious male fiction. Big names in music and literature were linked to the Magazine from Norman Mailer to John Coltrane and the play boy interview became a cultural institution to rival profiles in time Magazine or the new yorker. Unlike its imitators rogue dude or Hustler _ Playboy had a cultural respectability backed up by serious assessments of everyone from Jean Paul Sartre and Jean Genet to John Lennon it was for this reason that the joke about Only buying Playboy for the interviews came into being but the foldout always in color and always printed on a High qual Ity Glossy paper was the Magazine s guarantee of Success _. As Playboy Magazine was a fantasy of sex and sophistication slowly being realized through reports on Hefner s extravagant mansions and High octane Par ties it took the equally fantastic character of Ian Fleming s James Bond to match up the mythology. When Fleming s on her majesty s sew ice was serialized in Playboy Bond came to embody the perfect fantasy male for the image that Playboy was projecting Well dressed at ease in International High society a connoisseur of Fine living and a violent sexist Western agent. Bond s character As created by Hugh Hefner and daughter Christie Hefner flank or. Ruth was theimer at Playboy s 40th anniversary party on sept. 20 in new York. Sean Connery was depicted in Playboy having his Back massaged by an Ursula Andress lookalike while brandishing the lengthy barrel of his famous weapon. Corporate males taking their drinks in a Playboy club loved to see the adventures of Bond As an expression of their own office politics and business lives. Little boys playing at secret agents was their concept of masculinity. Throughout the 1960s, which were the Golden years of the Playboy lifestyle the Centrefolds were distinguished by the highly visible Tan lines across their breasts and buttocks never full frontal. In some cases this gave the impression of two tone woman but was clearly considered deeply sexy until there was a screech of subcultural synchronizes As pubic hair put in an appearance in the 1970s. 7" now full frontal and usually Clad in either a Man s White shirt unbuttoned or Satin and lace lingerie the Playboy Centrefold erred toward conformism at a time when pornography released from restrictive Laws was becoming More explicit. The Glamour element of the Playboy models in creased the respectability of to ref Magazine As it kept Pace with the years. By the late 1970s, most of the girls were a sort of Tangerine color bathed in Amber candlelight or airbrushed into Sun soaked boudoir. Meanwhile in a Distant Penthouse he in his dressing gown pipe clamped firmly Between his Teeth could apparently service a playmate a Day but in his position As the guru of an Independent religious cult approaching Middle age this was As Good As compulsory. Now with the publication of the luxurious hard Back Forry years of Playboy general publishing group Hefner s Beautiful dream has been bound in leather so to speak and has found its place As a major phenomenon in the history of american Cul Ture " / ,. Female superstars seem to line up to appear As Centrefolds either ironically or wittily or politically. Madonna and Sandra Bernhard have both bared All in Playboy. For them you feel posing for Playboy is what you do before you graciously accept your pulitzer prize or have a battleship named after you it s a cultural achievement. Meanwhile Backlin his Whirlpool Bath he Mustbe laughing his head off. Scripps Howard news service the line Between wonderbra and Mustang Sally s _ by Barbara roessner Hartford courant when the wonderbra recently made it debut in a nearly full Page newspaper and featuring a Model in blackface and a particularly enticing smile some readers called to denounce what they insisted was the latest grievous example of the mainstreaming of  it sounded like an extreme reaction to a Bra advertisement that in another Era might have starred a full bodied Jane Russell lifting and separating and crossing her  and the wonderbra is after All no More revealing than average everyday women s Beach togs. If Jant zen can advertise its wares in print Why not Maidenform or the Woride Rbra maker Sara Lee _ but for those of us who think the dividing line be tween the underwear and the sex industries is easy to discern consider the incredible Story of Mustang Sally a a new lingerie store in Vernon conn., that has taken that line and twisted it into All sorts of hilarious contortions. To the consternation of the building inspector who obtained a cease and desist order and shut the place Down one Day after it opened Mustang Sally s Fea Tures female clerks who Model their lingerie and then change outfits while perched on a  translation at Mustang Sally a naked women dance on a stage a the owners of Mustang Sally s continue to insist that in the True spirit of american entrepreneurship they have merely devised a Crea Tive method of merchandising their products. But what about that $5 cover charge per customer or the additional $10 fee for the personal Modelin session How about the fact that Mustang Sally s which does not serve alcohol and admits no one under 21 is housed in the same building As a topless bar and a video porn shop More creative merchandising of course. And As for those gyrations the models keep indulging in As they shed their merchandise Well they certainly Don t add up to a dance and they certainly could t be called stripping. Once again these models Are simply  7 the building inspector disagrees As he rightly Points out would any reasonable person in this Case. There s just no question that at Mustang Sally a the line Between underwear and pornography has clearly been violated just As in the Case of the wonderbra and most reasonable people would agree the line has been amply respected. But if the distinction in these instances is Clear enough to most of us there does seem to be an in creasing number of other cases in which a genuine blurring of the line has occurred. The Centrefolds of Playboy and the Victoria s secret Catalon for example Are barely distinguishable and i mean barely. Whether it s a strip joint trying to pass for a Bra store or a Bra and alleged to be smut they re really both the byproducts of a society that enthusiastically sanctions the Selling of sex As Long As we Don t come right out and say it s sex that s for Sale. If sports illustrated can boast that its Best Selling Issue of the year is the swimsuit edition Why can t the owners of Mustang s Sally say their All nude dancers Are sales clerks let s remember Hooters is a family restaurant whose name refers to a kind of Bird. If we want truth in Labelling first we be got to Fig ure out what the truth really is u s Angeles times Washington Post news service 3 i Page 20 sunday october 2, 1994